The present invention relates to an operation mechanism for a parasol, in which a cord winding mechanism and deflection mechanism are combined. A crank mechanism is used to switchably operate both the cord winding mechanism and the deflection mechanism for stretching open the parasol face or folding the parasol stem by a certain deflection angle in accordance with the oblique angle of the sunlight.
A conventional parasol is used to shade the sunlight or decorate a garden yard. The conventional parasol is composed of a parasol face, a stem, a seat, a wire winder and other operation mechanisms. Generally, the operation mechanisms only have the functions of stretching and collecting the parasol face of the conventional parasol.
After the parasol face is stretched open to shade the sunlight, in the case that the sunlight is projected by an oblique angle. The parasol face cannot be deflected in accordance with the angle of the sunlight so as to effectively shade the sunlight. In order to solve this problem, a parasol equipped with a folding mechanism has been developed. FIG. 8 is a perspective exploded view of the conventional folding mechanism of the parasol stem, which includes an upper member 10 and a lower member 20. The center of the upper member 10 is formed with a pin hole 11. A back face of a bottom board body of the upper member is disposed with a key slot 12. The lower member 20 is disposed with a cartridge section 21 and a push button 22. The push button 22 is formed with a key tooth 23 and a spring cavity 24 in which a spring 25 is received. The push button 22 is inserted into a socket 26 of the lower member 20 and then the upper member 10 is placed into the cartridge section 21 of the lower member 20. A pin member 27 is passed through the pin hole 11 to lock with a nut 28. When it is desired to change the deflection angle of the parasol, the push button 22 is pressed inward and then the stem connected between the upper member 10 and the parasol face is folded to achieve a desired deflection angle corresponding to the oblique angle of the sunlight.
The above operation procedure cannot be conveniently manually performed. The parasol face is stretched or collected by a manually operated crank, while the deflection angle of the parasol face is adjusted by other operation mechanisms. Moreover, the push button for adjusting the deflection angle of the parasol face is generally arranged at a relatively high position. Therefore, a user needs to press the push button with one and hold and fold the parasol stem with the other hand. Such operation necessitates both hands and is thus inconvenient and strength-consuming for the user.
Moreover, the folding mechanism of the conventional parasol as shown in FIG. 8 can only achieve a deflection function in one single direction. Most part of the parasol stem is connected with a bottom weight for achieving a stabilizing effect. Basically, the angles of the sunlight in sunrise and sunset are varied by 180 degrees on the same plane. The conventional folding mechanism is not applicable to shade the sunlight within the range of 180 degrees on a plane unless the bottom weight is together with the parasol stem lifted to rotate the parasol face. Such procedure is laborious and not practical.